


Sunburn

by UnderTheGrave



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith's friends are lowkey hooking him up and he is oblivious, Lifeguard!Hunk, M/M, Spring Break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-13 15:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10516749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderTheGrave/pseuds/UnderTheGrave
Summary: It isn't that Keith can't swim. It's not like he hates the beach. He can, and he doesn't. Simply, he would much rather stay on the sand than venture into the murky ocean water. He cringes at the thought of some unknown creature brushing against his leg and finds Lance crazy for swimming out as far as he can into the waves.Keith has a mild aversion towards the ocean, but with this certain lifeguard sitting next to him... it's hard not to picture a clichéd, cinematic mouth-to-mouth rescue. Hunk is even more radiant than the sun overhead, and he's burning Keith to a crisp.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a pretty self-indulgent feel good Heith fic, because there's never enough Heith. This is un-beta'd by the way, so I'll go in and fix mistakes if I see them.

"Ow, ow, _ow-_ "

"I _told you_ to put your sandals on!" 

Keith watches Lance hop from one foot to the other. A satisfied light grin tugs up the corners of his lips.

Lance has been throwing jabs his way the whole trip over. 30 whole minutes of shit like: _"Just admit it, you can't swim!" "Shouldn't we stop by a surf store and get Keith some floaties?" "You just know I'll beat you out to the buoy."_

Of course it was playful, but still... Sweet, sweet karma. The sun is bouncing off the pure white sand and he can feel the heat faintly through his own off-brand Chacos.

"Nah, nah, it's not that bad. Way better than that parking lot asphalt," Lance shoots back to an equally-amused Pidge. He stubbornly keeps his sandals gripped in his hands, continueing to hop along through the sand. Keith and Pidge exchange smug looks. Shiro trails behind Lance with a slightly concerned look but lets it be.

As the group rounds the last sand dune, Keith tunes in to the sound of the ocean. It's a sublime sort of sound... He doesn't like the idea of what lurks within that huge expanse of uncharted water. In fact, if he thinks about those churning waves and murky depths too long his throat tightens with paranoia. At the same time, it's relaxing to hear the waves roll into the shore. He picks up on the call of seagulls and the muffled chatter of other beach-goers.

He respects the ocean. He just doesn't want to go _in_ it. He's perfectly fine with listening and watching the waves. He looks forward to it even. Just like the others, fresh out of their midterms, he _needs_ the relaxation of this beach trip.

Although his friends were so weirdly pushy about an out-of-the-blue beach outing earlier that day, blowing up his phone with texts nagging him to get ready, Keith is eager to settle down with a book and bask in the salty sea breeze.

The path finally opens into the beach. The wind stirs Keith's bangs into his face. He tries to flip his hair from his eyes because he's carrying beach chairs under each arm. The wind blows it right back over and he wishes he'd tied up his hair beforehand. He can already feel sweat gathering on the back of his neck under his thick locks.

"See? All good," the brunette sighs contently as his feet hit the slowly-creeping tide.

"You suuure?" Pidge asks, smug but obviously caring about Lance's well-being.

As the others join him in dipping their feet in the water, Keith unfolds his chairs onto the sand and strips off his suffocating black tee. He tosses it off to the side absentmindedly, relieved to get the light-absorbing article of clothing off of him.

"Hang on. You know the drill. Sunscreen before you get all wet," Shiro says as Lance creeps knee-deep into the water. The brunette makes a childish face.

Keith swears he's part baby sea turtle. Picture it: the little hatchlings rushing down the beach to the water. That's Lance: bee-lining straight for the water as if its his only mission in life. He loves the ocean and Keith simply can't relate.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just testing it out. We've gotta find Hunk first, _remember?"_

Keith pauses after draping his towel over his chair. Oh right, they kept going on about this friend of theirs. Hunk. He probably should have waited to set up until they met up with him.

Shiro walks back to the chairs where Keith stands and shrugs off the bag slung over his shoulder.

"He shouldn't be too far."

After digging out a bottle of sunscreen he squeezes some into his palm. He passes the bottle to Lance and starts spreading it over his arms.

"'Oy Keith, did I get it all rubbed in?" Pidge pipes up next to him.

Pidge had the right idea; she wore a long-sleeved surf shirt to avoid having to worry about sunscreen anywhere but her face and legs where her swim trunks don't cover. Her torso is basically set and Keith wishes he'd thought of that. He burns so easily but hates the feeling of sunscreen on his skin. He reaches out and smooths the white still visible on Pidge's nose.

"I got you."

"Thanks," she beams. "Want me to get your back?" She rolls a spare hair-tie from her wrist.

He didn't _want_ that filmy substance on his skin, but it was better than becoming a lobster. He shrugged and took the hair-tie gratefully.

"I guess s-"

"Hunk!" Lance chimes, cutting Keith off. Pidge is momentarily distracted as well as she turns her gaze in one direction. Keith follows and-

Oh.

 _That's_ Hunk.

He seems vaguely familiar somehow, but that isn't possible... Keith would remember a guy like Hunk. He's tall. His skin is a stunning, warm, rich brown. He's built heavy and strong and all of Keith's energy is focused on not staring at his arms (Or even more awkward, the perfect amount of hair trailing from his navel down to his red lifeguard shorts). Hunk's got some sort of impressive black and gray tattoo on his right shoulder and upper arm that makes it harder. Not only is it nice to look at, but Keith has an unspoken weakness for arm tattoos.

He supposes it isn't _that_ hard to avoid staring creepily, because Hunk's face is just as captivating. His eyes sparkle against the sun. His jaw and broad and squared and some of his hair escapes a bandanna tied around his forehead.

His smile is too perfect. His teeth are straight and white. Keith's tongue subconsciously brushes over the small chip in his left canine he got from that fist fight back in high school. He smiles politely enough in greeting but keeps his lips together.

He's handsome and Keith is _not okay._

Hunk glanced at him for only a second before Lance was at his friend's side, slapping his back chummily.

"Hey guys. I saw you walking in."

"There's a lot of people here," Pidge observes. "You busy?"

Strangely, Pidge isn't looking at the surrounding tourists. She is looking at Keith with some reaction-gauging look that makes his eyes narrow. He mouths the word, _"What?"_ to her but she looks back at Hunk innocently.

"Oh man, it was way more crowded a couple hours ago but most of the little kids are clearing out. I can still hang around! Just gotta keep my eyes on the water."

Speaking of water, Lance is already crashing back into the shallows, brushing off something Shiro suggests about letting the sunscreen dry.

"You get off at six, right? We should go out for dinner after," he calls over his shoulder to Hunk, who nods and shrugs. 

"Oh, you guys don't have to stick around just for me."

"Aw hush, dude. It's not even that long."

Keith migrates closer to Pidge to get indirectly closer to Hunk. Plus, knowing his skin, he's probably already frying under the sun.

"Don't forget to get your face, Keith," Shiro throws in before he walks off with Lance into the waves.

"Oh right, sunscreen. Hold your hair off your neck."

Keith's mind starts to function again, allowing him to tie up his hair into a loose ponytail.

Hunk's looking at them as Pidge gets his neck and back. Looking at him, with that damn friendly, casual smile. This guy's a personification of a golden retriever.

"Hey, uh, I'm Keith." He offers a short wave with the hand that isn't holding up his hair.

Hunk's brow raises a bit and he tilts his head.

"How've you been, Keith?" he asks. Keith panics and the sound of his name leaving Hunk's lips blares in his head.

He _did_ know him from somewhere and he had no idea how he couldn't place it before. It crept back to him all at once. Hunk sat behind him in Stats freshman year... back when Lance still unreasonably hated his guts. Hunk was the guy who muttered at his friend to cool it with all of those competitive jabs.

And now Keith feels like a _jerk._ He chews his lips and lets his hair fall back over his neck as Pidge steps away to follow Shiro into the water.

She throws back, "Come join us if you want, Keith!" as her feet splash off. Keith feels inexplicably betrayed by _how fast_ she scurried off. Didn't she see that he was floundering?

"Oh yeah. Good. I've been good. And you?" he mutters, trying to recover. Hunk doesn't seem offended in the slightest but Keith continues to feel guilty. He regrets continuing with, "Sorry, it's been a couple years and all you know, and I hated every second of school, so..." because it gives away any doubt Hunk might've had that he didn't recognize him at first. He forces himself to stop talking before more word vomit comes out.

"Nah, I tried to stay towards the back and and not draw much attention to myself, so really, don't feel so bad about it," Hunk laughs. Keith watches as a large hand runs through those dark-chocolate bangs to push them out of his face.

"So Lance told me you've just been working then, right?"

Keith nodded, relieved to be changing subjects. Feeling awkward just standing there, he takes a seat in one of the beach chairs he hauled and nods towards the other as an invitation. He reaches for the discarded bottle of sunscreen and swirls a dab onto each cheek.

"Yeah. Full time. I got an off day and y'all're on Spring Break and all, so..."

For a moment, he wonders what other things Lance said about him to Hunk. Why would Lance even use him as a conversation topic? God forbid... He probably told him about that time Keith got way too hammered at that Rolo fellow's party, forcing him to bond with Lance over his hair being held away from the toilet. Nothing says, _'I don't hate you anymore'_ like that, Keith supposes. But still, they agreed to never discuss it.

Hunk's smile twitches higher at the _y'all're_  and he keeps the conversation going.

"Where do you work at?"

Keith has never liked talking this much about himself. Something about Hunk makes it impossible to get irritated by all the questions he's asking.

"I'm a personal trainer. You know, like, at the Rush."

"Nice. Do you like doing that?" Hunk finally sits down, his eyes scanning across the water alertly.

"It's alright," Keith lied. He honestly hated working with other people. Going slow, walking them through exercises... It was either that or dealing with bull-headed guys who insisted they knew better than Keith. Those guys that drank those chalky protein shakes and insisted on overexerting themselves on weights. He'd much rather wail on a punching bag by himself for a living, if that only paid.

"I guess that makes a lot of since. You look like you'd be good at fitness aaand... _Uh._ "

"Huh?" Keith says confusedly, wondering why Hunk trailed himself off so obviously.

"Oh, just- You know, _fit_ stuff- Ugh, sorry, ignore me."

Keith doesn't get why Hunk fidgets for a second as if he suddenly got nervous. Did Keith do something awkward? He can't place anything but feels a bit of self-doubt creeping in anyway.

Silence passes over them and Keith feels like he should really try and contribute something to the conversation. He _wants_ to talk more with Hunk. He just doesn't know what to say. On the flip side, he feels guilty that Hunk's been the only one trying to keep their chatter going. Now that he's quieted down, Keith subconsciously worries that he's grown tired of him.

At least with Hunk's focus on the water, Keith can steal glances at his arms.

He swallows. He wonders if he could even fit both hands around Hunk's bicep. He can see his tattoo clearly now. It's a shaded, semi-realistic sea turtle, detailed with clean edges and a written date under the left rear fin. He wonders if that symbolizes something in particular for him, but feels it isn't his place to ask considering how personal tattoos can get.

Keith looks out on the water to watch Pidge hook onto Shiro's shoulders like a spider monkey as Lance splashes at him. If it weren't for his slightly riled anxiety, Keith would be smiling. Shiro's been stressing so hard over his thesis paper. He deserves a day like this one more than anyone.

"You know, you don't have to keep me company."

"Huh?"

Keith turns to look at Hunk again only to find the lifeguard's eyes on him. 

"Just sitting here. Go out into the water with them, dude."

"Oh, no, I..."

Keith frowned. 

"Yooou?" Hunk urges, one of his brows quirking again. He looks back at the water.

"...I can't-"

"Oh, you can't swim?"

"I can!" Keith blurts. He's so used to drilling the fact to Lance that he got defensive too quickly. He feels heat rise to his face and quickly adds, "I just have this thing with the ocean. I'm fine in pools and stuff though... If that makes any sense."

"Make sense to me. Plenty of people are like that about the ocean."

Keith relaxes, glad that they're easing back into conversation.

He digs how Hunk just _gets it._ He doesn't try to convince him that he's being irrational, or try to pressure him to get in the water anyway.

"Get traumatized by _Jaws_ as a kid or something?" Hunk jokes.

Keith actually grins and laughs at that as Hunk looks at him with a slightly raised brow and lopsided smile that could probably make even Satan's heart melt.

"I haven't even subjected myself to watching that, thanks."

Harnessing the ounce of confidence that's rising up, Keith finally manages to articulate his interest in Hunk. Because he _is_ interested in Hunk, so much so that it's shockingly painful how paranoid he's being over simply _talking to him._ He's paranoid about coming off as irritated and disinterested, because he often _is_ with people.

With Hunk? He doesn't think that's possible.

"This seems like a cool job."

"It's alright," Hunk says casually, and for a second Keith worries he's going to leave it at that. After all it took to put together a few words into a casual statement. Thankfully, Hunk continues, "It's mostly just sitting around like this, telling drunk assholes to get their beer off the beach."

"Oh, weak."

"Yeah," Hunk laughs, slumping back lazily into the beach chair a bit. "But no, I guess I'm pretty lucky."

"Have you ever had to save somebody?"

"Just once."

Keith looks at him with genuine interest. Hunk must be able to sense it because he continues.

"It wasn't that bad. He was out really far, panicking and stuff. Just scary because it was a little kid, and his mom was freaking out."

It feels like Hunk's playing it off, but Keith finds him impressive and admiral. He literally saved a kid's life and there he is shrugging and being humble about it.

Keith wants to convey those thoughts to Hunk but feels his simple, "Wow, nice," doesn't work well. He leaves it at that either way and pulls his book from his beach bag. Hunk sticks by his side for 45 minutes or so before saying he's checking back at the station.

No more than three hours pass and Keith's joined his friends in making a sandcastle. While Shiro and Pidge work on the dug-out moat, he and Lance are competing to make their tower more decorative and impressive than the other's. Keith's tower is adorned with shells he found along the shore during his short walk.

His tongue swipes across his chapped lips and he makes a face at the feeling of grit between his teeth. Lance flicked some sand at Keith after a jab about how his drip-castle decorations looked like piles of poop.

Shiro quickly banned sand flinging before it became an all-out war, but some damage had already been done.

The tide is coming in though and their masterpiece will likely be washed away by nightfall. Keith doesn't mind that or the sand Lance sprinkled into his hair and mouth... He's mainly just wondering where Hunk's been for the past couple of hours.

Working obviously... Likely walking up and down the beach, chatting with unruly tourists. The sun is lowering in the sky though, and many people are starting to clear out. Keith wishes he had a way to check the time.

"Brought you guys something," the lifeguard's voice sparks from a few feet behind Keith. He glances readily over his shoulder to see Hunk holding four ice-pops.

"You're the best," Lance says warmly, rising up to dust sand off his hands and take the blue push-up treat. Keith agrees with Lance, for once.

Hunk smiles that radiant friendly smile of his and steps up to their sandcastle. Pidge and Shiro take the green apple and grape ice-pops respectively.

Keith takes the remaining red one as Hunk crouches down and eyes the large castle.

"Wow, you guys are show-offs."

"Hunk, my tower is obviously better than Keith's, right? Please agree."

Keith shoots Lance a competitive leer.

The poop tower obviously isn't better.

"I like them both. They're both good but in different ways!"

Hunk's leaning down to look at Keith's shell patterns, making him bite down on his cherry ice-pop at their proximity.

"Are you off?" Pidge pipes up, checking her water-proof watch. "It's past six."

"Yep. Where you guys wanna eat?"

"A restaurant," Shiro jokes with his typical ironic brand of Shiro humor. Keith shoots him a deadpan look.

"You know this place best. Surprise us," the eldest continues to Hunk, grinning back at Keith.

"You guys ready to go? We can hang around more if-"

" _Hungry_ ," Lance groans dramatically.

"Guess that answers that."

For the first time that day, Keith follows his friends out into the water a ways to wash off the sand. Pidge walks beside him, a supportive hand on his back as he dunks his head into the water and promptly leaves the water as soon as possible. His tongue swipes over his lips and his face scrunches. Why does it have to be so salty? It's literally just a stew of whale and shark and tourist piss. God, it's as gross as it is uncomfortable.

On the shore, Shiro drapes a towel around his shoulders for him and zips up the bag they're sharing. Keith looks around and-

"Wait, I can't find my shirt."

"Maybe it's buried under the sand somewhere?"

Keith thought back to when they first reached the shore, when he discarded his shirt into the sand. The high tide must have swept away his shirt from right under his nose.

"Shit, no. It washed away."

"Dude, how are we gonna go out to eat if Keith can't keep his shirt on?" Lance groans. Then he pauses, a brow raising, and he continues with, "Oh right. Hunk, you usually carry around a spare in your bag, right?"

The group looks at Hunk, who blinks, nods slowly, and starts to dig around in his red lifeguard bag.

"Huh, you sure do know me. This alright, Keith?"

He pulls out a yellow button-up. Its one of those stereotypical beach dad shirts with the tropical flower patterns on it. Keith feels like Hunk would look fine in it- _Great_ even- but dreads the idea of putting it on. Yellow is not his color and he's _definitely_ not a flower guy. The only plus side is that it's  _Hunk's_ shirt he'd be wearing and _that idea_ just...

"That works," Pidge answers for him, jabbing his back with her fingers to get him to take the shirt. "Right, Keith?"

Keith's mouth opens and closes but words fail to come out. He resigns to just taking the button-up from Hunk and shrugging it on.

"Thanks, Hunk," Shiro says for him. Hunk just shrugs nonchalantly.

"It looks like your wearing a dress," Lance snorts.

Keith shoots him a deadly look but he can't really disagree. Hunk's shirt is hanging over his thighs. The sleeves are baggy. It's making his stomach twist in a weird way that persists the whole ride over to the restaurant.

Admittedly he was a bit jealous when Lance hitched a ride with Hunk, but it wasn't like he was going to insist on taking his place. With how it worked out with everyone else leaving the last two seats at the table, they were sitting next to each other anyway. Keith throws something into their conversations occasionally, but not as much as the others. Nothing unusual. Hunk fits into their dynamic easily with his bubbly personality. It's a lot like sitting next to a warm fire. Somehow that makes sense to Keith.

"So, uh, Keith," Hunk starts. His demeanor grabs Keith's attention quickly. He seems a bit nervous all of a sudden. He's poking his straw and rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes are glued to the table.

In a way, it's almost endearing. Hunk's fidgeting that is. Keith mainly just wants to know why he's uncomfortable all of a sudden so he can bring him out of it.

"Ugh, Lance kept hounding me the whole ride over that I should like, try and... Well..."

"Yeah? What did he say now?" he asks expectantly, swirling his drink around. He glances across the table. The other three seem conveniently busy with their own conversation. It's almost like they're preoccupying themselves on purpose. His suspicious look towards Lance is either ignored or goes unnoticed.

"Well, do you... What I'm trying to say is..." Hunk laughs a little to himself and takes a sip of his sugary drink. "...Nah, it was a good pep talk."

Keith is growing antsy but is desperate to keep it hidden for Hunk's sake.

"We should do this again sometime... Maybe just you and me?" Hunk says all of a sudden. His words are followed by Lance slurping loudly at his straw to announce that his glass is empty.

The question doesn't register at first. The obnoxious slurp threw Keith off. When it does, his eyes widen and dart across the table again. Wow, they're still blabbering away about super random things. Even Shiro isn't being his lifeboat. Lance is stabbing at his ice with his straw as Shiro and Pidge continue to yammer back and forth.

"Or with the group I mean, if you'd rather. I guess that was sort of... Yeah. Sorry."

Keith snaps back to attention, realizing he didn't say a thing for a good amount of time. He cursed as he watched Hunk's eyes drift back to his glass.

"Just us." 

Hunk's eyes are on him again. Keith wants to melt into the floor when a tentative smile creeps back onto his face.

"Cool... Can I get your-"

He's already stuffed his hand into his pocket and fished out his phone before Hunk can finish asking. 

"Put your number in. I'll send you something."

Keith watches Hunk's thick fingers tap away at his phone screen. Once the device is handed back, Keith stares at the 'compose message' screen. He's lost for a few seconds. When he glances up, Hunk is talking casually with Lance, that radiant smile gracing his features.

Shit. This shouldn't be so hard. He could really just send Hunk "Here's my number" at the most. A random letter or keyboard smash would work quite honestly. In any other situation, that's all Keith would really feel compelled to do. In this instance however, he scrolls through emojis. His finger pauses over the winky face and he considers it for a fraction of a second.

Yeah, definitely not. This is Keith we're talking about. But he considers it.

He sends a couple of turtles.

He rests his phone on the table. Hearing Hunk's buzz after a few seconds, he glances to the side and watches him unlock the screen.

Hunk laughs softly. It's the greatest thing Keith's ever heard.

...

"It was good to see you again."

"Yeah."

"See you around I guess?"

"Yeah."

"You gonna remember me next time?"

Keith stiffens, then realizes Hunk is _messing with him._ Flirting?He's grinning and raising an eyebrow.

He smirks back at him and gently punches his shoulder.

"Like I could forget you."

_Fuck, that was cheesy._

 A pause, then Keith adds, "Do you want your shirt back?" He undoes the top button. "I mean, they're just taking me straight home, so it doesn't really matter if I-"

"Nah. Just give it back next time. I'm holding you to it now."

Keith's hands fall. His smile actually shows a hint of teeth in response to Hunk's gleaming one.

"Keith, come oooon," Lance calls while hanging from the backseat window.

As Keith sits shotgun and shuts the car door, the overhead lights illuminate his face and catch Shiro's attention.

"Keith, you're really flushed. Did you forget to put sunscreen on your face?" 

"Nah Shiro, he remembered that," Pidge hums. Even _worse_ , Lance snickers and Shiro's smiling softly. Why would he be smiling over his sunburned face? The two in the back exchange elbow nudges.

Keith shoots a wary look through the rear view mirror at them, but it holds no real venom to it. He's in too good of a mood. They've been acting weird all day after all.

...

"Keith, wait up," Lance voice calls from the window. Curiously he turns around, checking his pocket for his phone and keys. 

Something hits his face softly and covers his vision. He yanks it off with his hand and studies it, only to find that it's his black shirt he thought he lost in the tide.

"Lance- _you are_ _so_ -"

Shiro's car peels back onto the street and vanishes into the night. Keith's face scrunches as Pidge waves to him from the window.

He never took Shiro for a getaway driver.


End file.
